In a blow to business travellers everywhere, Portsmouth, New Hampshire company Zulu Broadcasting has unveiled three products designed to work as a web broadcasting package. The first offering is an engagingly named portable webcaster, Video Vamoose. This device plugs into any camcorder and streams live video and audio to the internet. Users can sit it on a desktop or sling it around their waist for that authentic, journalist-in- the-field look. The Vamoose has built-in support for two standard phone lines and works on an Ethernet network or over the internet via wireless, radio frequency and ISDN connections. Video quality scales according to available bandwidth, up to a maximum of 720 by 486 pixels at 30 frames per second. An LCD screen permits a modicum of interactivity, letting watchers type in comments to be read by the webcaster. Zulu spokesman Andrew Lickley says Vamoose technology is expected to change fairly rapidly over time, so rather than selling the units, the company will lease them from $500 for two hours. As the footage is captured, users can broadcast it to one of five Zulu Broadcasting channels. These channels – called ZuluTV, ElectionSource, UBSports, BisCAST and Live Weddings – are the second of Zulu’s three announcements. The third is an Enterprise Broadcasting System (EBS) for corporate customers with their own internet or intranet infrastructure already in place. The EBS works in conjunction with Real Networks’ G2 media streaming platform. Lickley suggested that companies could use EBS for product launches and to cut executive travelling costs. We don’t really position it as videoconferencing but you can use it that way, he says. Another nail in the coffin for business junkets.
